JD Shep’s Game Fly Rental Review Summer Extravaganza #4 was originally posted as a Facebook note on 06/13/2010. Minor changes were made to the content and format.

Third on the list from Game Fly was “Wet” for the Xbox 360.

Quick Synopsis:“Wet” is a 3rd person bullet time shooter (similar to Max Payne and Stranglehold) meshed with cinematic grind house style (using a film scratch filter). Since this game is not based on a movie, I will go into some details on the story before getting to Pros & Cons.

The main character in this game is a woman named Rubi, gun for hire. A job went terribly wrong, and so begins her journey to find out answers and to seek revenge. So, therefore, it turns into a game where you shoot and slash everyone in sight with an acrobatic twist while building up style points and multipliers to upgrade Rubi’s skills and her weapons. You can kick in the slow-mo by shooting in combination with jumping, sliding, wall-running, ledge-running or zip-lining. Rubi also has ‘Rubi-Vision’ that lights up the environment areas where you can do acrobatics.

There is also a ‘Rage Mode’ that kicks in at pre-determined points during the game. The screen goes black, red and white and it becomes easier to kill the enemies. In this time frame you try to rack up as many chain kills as possible.

Another thing that is thrown in to break up the game are ‘Quick Time Events’ (QTE) where the button comes on the screen to initiate an action. These are done on some boss fights and at other points during the game.

To build health you rack up the style points and you drink whiskey (it numbs away the pain…yes it does…).You also collect toy monkeys and try to kill scorpions. (I have no clue why, but got 2 achievements from it.)

You can get even more of those points in the many ‘Combat Arenas’ of the game. Where you try to jump and slide on the floor the whole time to start your slow motion, kill the enemies, and close of the doors to where the enemies are coming through.

My personal stats:
I played through just the ‘Story Mode’. I played at a normal difficulty and unlocked 22 of the 43 achievements for 400 points out of a possible 1000 points.

There is a ‘Challenge Mode’ which contains ‘Boneyard Challenges’ where Rubi goes through an obstacle course for time and medals. There is also a ‘Points Count’ where you go back through ‘Story Mode’ to just rack up the points.

Pros:
1) Graphics: For what the developers were trying to accomplish, I say the graphics in this game are good. It matches with the cinematic style.

2) Audio: The soundtrack is a bunch of unknown punk and alternatives bands that also match the style of the game.

3) Weapons: You can dual wield you arrange of firearms during the bullet time with one gun auto-aiming and the other you aim. You also have the use of a sword which can also take advantage of slow-mo.

5) Gameplay: The acrobatics and bullet time is what makes the game fun.

Cons:
1) Story: There is not really a deep story here, and there is a twist that caught me off guard. The developers definitely went for style over substance.

2) Jerry sucks at gaming more then he admits: I died quite a bit more then I should. Mainly when I fell while doing acrobatics or in the ‘Combat Arenas’. There was this one part when you were falling from a plane and dodging debris. Yea……I had to keep learning from my movement mistakes on that one, over and over again. It almost cost the game.

3) ’Combat Arenas’ I had mentioned earlier that you have to close down the doors to stop the enemies from coming in. Well with me being the novice gamer I am had some difficulty either finding were to go or getting there once I found it. You are killing the enemies, trying to rack up style point by doing acrobatics and trying to stay alive. There is a lot going on.

Conclusion:
When it was not frustrating me, I was having a lot of fun with this game. There is more playability after the ‘Story Mode’, so I would rank this as a 3) Buy Used. (Or at least rent for longer than I did.)